John R. Washlick focuses his practice on healthcare transactions and corporate compliance. His background as a CPA affords him a unique perspective on mergers and acquisitions and their tax implications. He is resident in both the firm’s Philadelphia and Princeton offices. His clients include hospitals, healthcare systems, physician practices, individual physicians, and entrepreneurs and investment-backed entities.
John is a recognized authority on federal income tax issues involving tax-exempt organizations and the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law. His guidance is often sought as his clients assess various arrangements with physicians, such as clinical joint ventures, co-management arrangements, integrated delivery systems, business joint ventures, physician recruitment, practice acquisitions, employment arrangements, hospital/physician integration planning and exclusive provider agreements. He also advises healthcare industry clients, including entrepreneurs and investment-backed entities on general corporate law and regulatory healthcare-related issues, such as the corporate practice of medicine and fee splitting laws. John partners with clients to arrive at strategic, yet practical, solutions to often cutting-edge issues and high-profile matters.
John has experience in structuring, negotiating and documenting a variety of complex business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, joint operating agreements, joint ventures, clinical co-management agreements, academic and clinical affiliations, and contractual relationships among providers and with third-party payors. He advises clients in the formation or acquisition of new entities, the restructuring of existing entities and the creation of alliances or other integration initiatives. John assists clients in responding to industry changes resulting from the Affordable Care Act, including the development of integrated provider networks, such as Clinically Integrated Networks (CINs), Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program and NCQA patient-centered medical homes.
He also assists clients with developing and implementing corporate compliance plans, HIPAA programs and governance restructuring and planning. John speaks nationally and writes frequently on contemporary healthcare topics.
John is recognized among the leading healthcare lawyers in Pennsylvania by international legal research publisher Chambers USA, an honor based on an intensive research process incorporating client feedback. Chambers described John as “well regarded for his transactional expertise in relation to the health care industry” and noted “his tax knowledge on tax-exempt organizations and federal income tax issues.” Chambers also noted that John is highly praised for his “very analytical and business-minded” approach to healthcare matters and citing sources who praised his “ability to think outside the box in solving healthcare legal problems,” while also gaining client praise for his “great dedication to client service.”
John has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America® since 2007 in the healthcare law area. He has also been recognized by Pennsylvania Super Lawyers® and has garnered an AV® Preeminent distinction, the highest available mark for professional excellence from Martindale-Hubbell’s® Peer Review Ratings.
John is a former adjunct professor of law at both the Widener University School of Law and the Villanova University School of Law, where he taught federal income tax and healthcare-related courses for over 15 years. John speaks and writes on transaction, governance, regulatory and compliance matters, and he has been published in many healthcare and tax-related publications, such as Health Connections, Health Law Digest, the Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly and the New Jersey Law Journal. He is the author of Bloomberg BNA’s Tax Management Portfolio’s “Nonprofit Healthcare Organizations: Federal Income Tax Issues” (3rd Edition) and “Joint Ventures Involving Tax-Exempt Organizations.”
Prior to joining Buchanan, John was a shareholder in healthcare at two firms, where he led the commercial healthcare practice. Prior to and during law school, John worked as a certified public accountant (CPA), including for two Big Four accounting firms, and as a corporate controller for a publicly traded company.